Enterprise the Star Ship, Warping Along
by ButIHaveNoFear
Summary: In the first crossover of its kind, a landing party from the USS Enterprise loses contact while visiting a strange planet with animate locomotives, and even stranger things happen aboard the ship. Captain Kirk and his crew must return to the Enterprise and regain control with logic and a little bit of magic.
1. Teaser

Captain's Log: Stardate 2996.4

After pushing to the outer limits of the galaxy, we picked up an isolated planet on our sensors. The planet gives off a unique signature, a large energy aura beyond explanation. We will arrive in approximately one hour and attempt orbit, taking extreme caution.


	2. Chapter 1

Lieutenant Uhura checked her scanners again, as she had every two minutes this hour, but this time she could actually see it. She immediately pulled off her headset and spun around in her chair. "We have visual contact with the planet, Captain."

Kirk, who had just finished dictating his ship's log, had resumed his pensive posture—resting his face on his hand with legs crossed in the Captain's Chair. Upon the announcement, he assumed an authoritative posture and glanced back at Uhura. Looking back to the front, he released a mind-cleansing sigh. He never knew what to expect with each new planet they encountered.

"Put it on screen, Lieutenant," Kirk ordered.

As he watched, a remarkably blue marble of a planet appeared before them—with no sign of the energy aura that appeared on the computers.

"It appears to be rather Earth-like in size, appearance, and composition, Captain," Spock remarked.

"Yes," the captain shifted position. "It's — rather uncanny. Chekov!"

"Yes, Kyptin," he answered. Chekov had leaned over to tell Helmsman Sulu how the blue planet reminded him of the clear Russian sky, but the captain called him before he could speak.

"Run an analysis of that planet again. I want to know what is making the aura of energy that we can't see. Sulu, reduce speed to warp one. I don't want us to get too close until we're sure of the ship's safety."

"Aye, captain," replied Sulu. He was happy in the back of his mind that the captain had given both him and Chekov commands so he would not have to listen to another fun fact about Russia. At least for the moment.

"Kyptin," began Chekov, dumbfounded, "the computer isn't picking out any specific energy coming off the planet anymore! I'm only picking up life forms."

"My scanners are picking up life forms as well, Captain," announced Uhura. "Lots of them! They appear to be standard Earth humanoids!" She struggled to hide her excitement about finding what seemed to be an oasis in the galactic desert. The other members of the bridge crew were stealing excited glances at the planet.

"Really," Kirk remarked. "Radiation levels?"

"No significant radiation to report, Captain," Spock answered.

Mr. Spock, already standing from his chair, stepped closer to the captain while watching the planet grow larger each second. He couldn't help but notice the Lieutenant's excitement as well as the changed demeanor of everyone on the bridge. Everyone was transfixed on the blue planet. As Spock had predicted, the human crew found it attractive because it was like Earth. Even the captain's wary demeanor was beginning to change as he heard its positive reports. Spock knew that he would need to make sure the captain and crew made the most logical decisions.

Kirk, previously biting his knuckle, stood from his chair and walked closer to the screen. The planet was primarily water with many groups of island clusters instead of continents. He felt a pull inside him to enjoy the planet like the rest of his crew. The captain spun on his heel to face Spock, who raised an eyebrow at him quizzically. "Exactly how — Earth-like did you say this planet was, Spock?"

"The atmosphere is 64.865% nitrogen, 30.135% oxygen, 4.23% carbon dioxide, 0.77% other negligible gases, and manageable enough for a shuttle crew to enter and exit. Water covers 85.86% of the planet's surface, and the average surface temperature is ideal for human life," he squinted, "which is very curious, Captain, because there are no stars nearby to produce this heat."

The captain cocked an eyebrow and the corners of his mouth turned up in a gentle grin. "Noted, Mr. Spock." He didn't need such a long-winded description, but he _had_ used the word "exactly" with a Vulcan.

Nevertheless, Spock's detailed report put Kirk more at ease with the planet, and he looked at the screen again. The planet looked fantastic, especially for something at the edge of the galaxy in the middle of nowhere. (He would have thrown his chair across the room if he had to hear Spock say "uninhabitable space rock" one more time.) Space was dead, vacant and black between the stars, but life was here. Jim felt alive just watching the planet grow larger on the screen. It was—he dare think—magical.

His jaw began to clench as he thought through the planet's bewitching façade. It was beautiful, but there was something strange about it. The brilliant blue color, uninterrupted by a single cloud, seemed almost too good to be true. He turned back to Spock, interested by the final fact he had relayed. "If there is no star, how would it reflect so much light on the surface?"

"Unknown, Captain, but it could correlate to the energy field."

The captain glanced at Chekov then; he was hard to ignore. He was actively using his console, trying to find out what happened to the energy and hoping to impress Spock with his success. Perhaps the ship was already inside the energy field, already influenced by its effects—whatever those could be. Before he could get too lost in theories, he bought himself back to practical matters. "What is our ETA, Sulu?"

"At present speed, 43 minutes."

He turned back to the planet. "It seems safe enough to approach. When we get there, I want a nice wide orbit."

"Yes, sir."

"And there is no signature of warp-drive technology here?" he checked.

"None, Kyptin," Chekov answered. "Only low-efficiency combustion engines."

"Well, then. It's important that we don't interfere with the native technology." Kirk stated and glanced over at Spock, who was watching the planet with no expression. "Spock, do you have any opinion? You seem," he lowered his eyebrows, "quieter than normal."

Normally Mr. Spock would have expressed some theories about the planet's peculiarities by now. Perhaps he couldn't say very much because there was a lack of data.

Spock raised an eyebrow. "Quiet, Captain? I am merely as fascinated with this planet as you are, and I look forward to beaming down with your landing party for scientific analysis."

The captain chuckled and sat down in his chair. Was he really that predictable? "Ship-wide transmission, Lieutenant."

"Aye, Captain," she replied.

"Attention Enterprise: We are approaching an unknown Earth-like planet and we'll begin orbit in half an hour. It is teeming with intelligent life, and I will be leading a small landing party to investigate. The ship is to remain invisible, but prepared for any emergency. Standby for party assignments. Kirk out."

He stood up to prepare for transport, and he and Spock began to walk towards the elevator.

"Jim! Jim!" the captain soon heard in the hall.

 _Someone_ must not like their party assignment.

The captain grinned as his personal friend Chief Medical Officer Leonard "Bones" McCoy approached the bridge. "I knew we would be hearing from him," Kirk said tongue-in-cheek.

"I could hear him coming all the way from the medical wing, Captain," Spock added blandly.

The doors opened and the red-faced doctor approached the captain. "Jim, you're going to give me a heart attack!" he panted. "These people probably saw each others' limbs off from poison ivy!"

"That is why you must come along, Doctor," Spock replied, causing the doctor to flinch. "It is the most logical choice to have the Chief Medical Officer accompanying the landing party in case of a medical emergency," he explained, as if the explanation would stop the doctor from becoming more riled up.

Dr. McCoy slowly turned to glare daggers at Spock, who still watched him without emotion. The word "logical" coming from that Vulcan was one of the doctor's trigger words, especially today. That was another reason that McCoy wasn't looking forward to going on this mission.

"It's alright, Bones!" Jim put his hand on the doctor's shoulder to distract him from an impending argument with Spock. "They won't saw our limbs off since you'll be with us!"

The captain had forgotten that Spock and McCoy had a rather hot debate during breakfast about any number of things. ("It is not logical for a medical doctor to behave so unpredictably." "Then where's the logic in an emotionless Vulcan feeling the need to critique my every move!?") If he had remembered, he would have had one of them stay on the ship. He greatly valued their insight, but he would still send one back to the ship if necessary. He started to walk off the bridge to dress in appropriate planetary wardrobe and meet the rest of the landing party.

"I hope I don't stand next to you in the transporter," McCoy jabbed at the Vulcan before following Kirk.

"That would be highly unlikely," Spock replied.

He walked to Uhura's station after the doors closed behind McCoy. "Lieutenant, please make sure that the transporter room beams us to an island," he raised an eyebrow, "rather than underwater."

"Yes, Commander. I'll submit coordinates now," she replied with a little too much cheer.

Spock slowly nodded and walked off the bridge.

When she was sure Spock had gone, Uhura let out the laughter she had been holding in. She recalled the spat at breakfast, but she was mostly laughing from joy of the growing blue planet. She wished that she could be on the landing party this time. It looked like the most appealing, friendly little planet in the galaxy. She listened in on the peppy radio communications across the planet and heard the motion of industrial machinery. It made her feel nostalgic and a little giddy. The crewmen at the helm grinned back at her.

"I read you loud and clear, Lieutenant." Sulu smiled, "If this planet turns out to be safe, I hereby submit my request for shore leave!"

"Aye!" the entire bridge assented.

"Now closing in on the little blue oasis in space," Uhura announced. How could there be any danger?


	3. Chapter 2

"Orbit has been established, Captain," Sulu announced to the transporter room.

"Excellent, Mr. Sulu," Kirk answered. Whatever the energy field was, it had not interfered with the ship or the crew. Now it didn't appear to exist at all. There was no way that the scanners could have made it up; it had existed, but now there was nothing. The captain felt relaxed since there was no apparent danger, but thoughts churned in the back of his mind. An oasis could appear in a desert, but far more common was a mirage. Perhaps there would be some explanation when they arrived on the planet. The Enterprise had seen a whole population controlled by a robot "god." Considering the underdevelopment of the humanoids on the planet, it wasn't impossible that a similar situation was happening here.

He adjusted the bottom of his ivory waistcoat and smoothed down the pocket of his light brown morning suit where he concealed his phaser. Their outfits were especially chosen to match the dress of the inhabitants. It resembled Earth in the 1940s. It was strange how many societies resembled old-fashioned Earth. Kirk appreciated that there were skilled anthropologists among the crew and that one would join them on the planet.

McCoy was less focused on his own appearance and more intent on teasing Spock about how he was lucky that his hat was big enough to cover his pointed ears. Spock stood there rather... emotionlessly.

Spock asked the crewmen at the transporter console, "Did you receive coordinates from Uhura?"

"Yes, sir," a young crewman answered. "We're ready to beam down when Sasha gets here—I mean Crewman Helms!" He stood very stiffly.

Both Spock and the captain gave sternly quizzical looks to the red-faced crewman. "Will we beam into a concealed area?" Kirk asked firmly, letting the young man know that he was choosing to forgive that breach of protocol this time.

"Yes, sir." The embarrassed crewman seemed to release a breath he had been holding. He regained composure. "A small forest on the edge of a populated area."

Kirk gave a nod, and turned towards the sound of the opening door. A small young woman entered quickly, wearing a calf length brown dress and a floppy black hat.

"I apologize for being a little bit tardy," she announced in a surprisingly strong voice, walking towards the transporter plates. She had short black hair and large blue eyes—Kirk could see why the crewmen looked after her so intently.

"It's alright," replied McCoy. "You did have to pick clothes for four other people."

They all stepped onto the transporter—Spock and McCoy stood on opposite sides of the machine. Kirk quickly sized up his landing party: Spock, McCoy, Helms, and a security officer, just in case.

"Energize."

"That made me feel a little woozy, Jim," McCoy lulled when they appeared on the planet surface.

"It isn't just you, Bones," frustration, and the feeling of severe indigestion, evident in his voice. If that crewman was so enraptured by Miss Helms that he poorly executed transporter functions, Kirk was going to relieve him right then. Kirk flipped open his communicator. "Kirk to Enterprise," he called firmly. Radio noise. "Kirk to Enterprise," he repeated. He threw out his arms and turned sharply to face the crew. "No answer!"

Spock was also trying his communicator. "It appears that there is some sort of interference preventing communication with the ship, not a human error," Spock determined, taking Kirk's unspoken assumptions to mind. "It could have also interfered with transporter functions."

"Jim, you knew something was off about this planet, didn't you," McCoy assumed.

Kirk began to reply, but they suddenly heard a low beating sound overhead. "Dive!" They quickly took cover among the trees surrounding them, anticipating a threat. A white pod with spinning rotors flew hundreds of meters over them and passed by without slowing down. Kirk couldn't get over the feeling that it had been watching them.

"Well! Isn't that a sight!" McCoy exclaimed while pulling Helms to her feet.

"I fail to see what appeals to you about primitive hovering technology, Doctor McCoy," said Spock.

"Well Spock, I fail to see what appeals to you, except your own logic," McCoy smirked.

Captain Kirk and the other officers were already standing in the clearing again. "Since we can't connect to the Enterprise, we might as well go to the population center and do what we came here for." He led them through the trees in the direction of civilization. He and the crew looked very out of place wearing nice suits in the thick of a pine forest. They had to keep a hand on their hats so they wouldn't be pushed off by wild green needles. Kirk felt the familiar pressure of responsibility upon him; his actions on this planet determined whether his crew would safely return to the Enterprise.

At the sound of a long whistle that cut through the trees, McCoy's face brightened and then turned into a haughty grin. "And Spock can learn to appreciate some of this primitive technology!"

The Vulcan did not turn around. He indeed felt something inside when he and the doctor shared comments, but he was not going to let it influence anything of himself, including his countenance. Since Dr. McCoy was an illogical human, such a response would only encourage him to continue his behavior. Then again, a nonresponse would also encourage him.

Eventually the forest of uneventful Earthlike plants ended at a tall brick wall, about four meters high. The security officer scaled a nearby tree to see what was beyond it.

"It's a large locomotive station, Captain!" he called. "There are hundreds of people!"

"Let's ride a train, Jim!" beamed the doctor. He seemed to be enjoying the scenery more than the anthropologist. The captain gave a half smile and attempted to communicate with the ship again with no success—louder static, but no success. They moved on and found a way around the wall and immediately blended into the hustle and bustle of an afternoon train depot.

"All these beings appear to be perfectly human, Captain," Spock noted.

Kirk nodded back at Spock, but did a double take and smiled. "You need to fix your hat."

"I do apologize, Captain." The pine trees must have moved Spock's hat so that one of his ears stuck out from under the rim. Spock quickly pushed it inside.

It was true. Men, women, and children in all manners of old fashioned dress. They were loading and unloading locomotive cars, purchasing tickets, carting luggage, eating lunch. They had no idea there was a spacecraft orbiting their planet and that aliens were in their midst—and they would hopefully never find out. Everyone looked cordial and chipper, and they spoke like proper Englishmen. The crew looked like they fit in, but their lack of an accent would give them away. Helms told them that it would be better for them to not fake an accent.

"Let's split up for now," Kirk muttered over his shoulder after they had walked around a while, and the crew wordlessly walked their own way.

Walking around by themselves, it was easier to go unnoticed and look closely at things. The scene did not appear dangerous, and their communicators still worked on a local level just in case there was a problem. It didn't seem like there could be a problem here though. As the planet had appeared from the ship, the surface and society seemed ideal. Could it truly be a Utopian society? When they returned to the ship, not if, Kirk looked forward to learning the truth about this place.

While he was browsing a newspaper stand, a few giggling ladies wearing calico dresses caught the captain's eye, but he soon set his sights on a woman in a ticket booth. She smiled at everyone who walked by, and especially at the captain. A map or other location information would be very useful, so he approached the ticket booth.

"Good afternoon," the woman warmly greeted.

Kirk tipped his hat—it was considered good manners to do that in this century, wasn't it? "Good afternoon," he returned with a signature smile. "You wouldn't happen to have a map of the island for me, would you?"

The woman grinned, "Of course, sir."

Leaning against the booth, Kirk couldn't help watching her as she turned around to get the map. Certainly the calf-length, dark blue uniform dress she wore was not as... intriguing as a Starfleet uniform, but the woman wore it well.

"Here is a map of town, and here is a map with all the railways."

Kirk took both maps, but preferred the railway map over the local map. There were many railway depots and lines that covered the island like a web. The Island of Sodor.

"You aren't from around here, are you?" she asked with a charming smile. There was a note of curiosity in her voice, and Kirk wondered how foreign his accent must seem to her.

"No, I'm here traveling on special business." Kirk let the words flow out. It definitely wasn't a lie.

"What special business?" she blurted out. Her excitement broke through her cordial work persona and manifested in her wide green eyes.

Oh, if you only knew, Kirk thought. "I'm afraid," he began glumly—it was not an act, "I can't tell you that."

"Oh, but even the most stuffy old businessmen tell me their stories!" she encouraged in her chipper accent. "It's almost like traveling, myself." She tucked a piece of short blonde hair behind her ear as her thoughts returned to her collections of learned adventures. She truly wanted to go on one herself.

Kirk sighed and studied her face for a few seconds, seeing his own enthusiasm in her eyes. She would never believe where he had been able to travel, and he was not at liberty to tell her. "Oh, but you can travel anywhere you wish, Millie," he mused. She blushed at the use of her name, and Kirk knew he had sufficiently distracted her from his own travels. "Just catch the next train out of here." He quickly held up his map of the island, "Kirk Ronan looks like a lovely place!" (It was the first place he had seen on the map because it shared his name.)

She laughed even though she did not know the depth of the joke. "I can't just get on a train and leave here, stranger," she challenged. "I have to keep working!"

He chuckled, peering into her green eyes. "Call me Jim," he said handsomely. He removed his hat and ran a hand through his hair.

Millie blushed again. "Jim," she quietly repeated to herself. Snapping out of it, she put her hands on her hips in playful boldness, "Well, tell me, Jim, why do you think I can go off and travel the world even though there is so much work to be done?" She batted her lashes and pursed her red lips.

"Because," Jim crooned, absently playing with the rim of his hat. His hazel eyes smoldered as they locked with Millie's again, and he cocked his head to deliver his final remark. "Because you're the ticket lady—"

"Captain!" Crewman Helms touched him on the shoulder.

Kirk quickly turned around with a glare; he did not get to deliver his line properly. "Yes, Crewman?" he asked sternly. He shouldn't be upset with Helms for the interruption, but what horrible timing!

Helms raised her eyebrow at him, but she continued in a quieter voice, "Captain, I overheard some train conductors talking, and it was about the Enterprise."

Kirk's eyes widened and his countenance became instantly professional. "Is it trying to communicate with us?"

"I left to find you before I could find out."

Kirk quickly put on his hat. All he could offer Millie, who was obviously upset, was a gentle, "thank you for the map."


	4. Chapter 3

Helms kept glancing at Kirk as they walked to the engine platform. She finally spoke. "I apologize for interrupting your conversation, but I couldn't have used the communicator. She would have noticed."

Kirk mumbled his acceptance, but he got the feeling that she had some personal satisfaction from interrupting them. The captain was not the only womanizer aboard the ship, and Helms was probably a frequent target. No matter Kirk's actions, the most important lady in his life was the Enterprise.

Once they arrived at the platform, Kirk and Helms stood off to the side of a train coach and could overhear a conversation.

"—Why would a woman keep asking to see the captain? The Fat Controller isn't going to be here for an inspection until tomorrow, and she should already know that!"

It had to be Uhura!

Kirk, needing no more time to devise a plan, leapt up into the train coach. "Gentlemen—" There were three conductors in the standing area at the front of the coach. "A pleasure to meet you. Kirk, Jim Kirk." He quickly shook their hands. "And my assistant Miss Helms," who appeared behind him. They shook her hand as well. Kirk was glad that his suit and Helms's dress resembled the style of the conductors' clothes. His plan might work.

"The Controller sent me here just in time, it seems," Kirk began, using the title of their leader. "We are here, from a railroad off the island," he said accounting for his accent, "to assess the long-range radio capabilities on your train coaches." He amiably put his hand on one of the conductor's shoulders when he tried to get a word in, meeting his eyes. "If you'll just give us a few minutes, men, we'll go through a few tests."

Kirk nodded at Helms and they gestured the conductors from the cabin very gracefully and without objection. They looked slightly confused but did not appear to doubt Kirk's authority. After they were out the door, Kirk found the radio microphone. "This is Kirk to Enterprise," he said in a low voice. It surprisingly echoed through the whole coach since it was their announcement system..

"Enterprise to Kirk," Uhura's voice broadcasted, "Is everyone safe?"

"Yes, but we need our own communication restored, Lieutenant. This is a public announcement system."

"We're working to restore the line of communication and the transporter," she assured. "After you left, Captain, something unexplainable happened to all transmissions and the Enterprise itself seems very shaken and unreliable."

Kirk blinked slowly. Unreliable? It becomes unreliable after carrying them into deep space? These things don't happen by accident. "When you get all the transmissions back in order, have Scotty beam us up right away—that's an order."

"Aye, Captain."

"We are not in danger, but we don't want to remain stranded here if the ship should continue to be unreliable. Kirk out."

Kirk nodded to Helms and they left the cabin. Kirk looked to the now larger group of assembled conductors standing outside. "That'll be all, gentlemen. You shouldn't be getting any more strange calls, and our crew will be back with your upgrades in a few weeks." He mouthed "Let's go!" to Helms and they very purposefully walked away, feeling the railway staff looking after them.

Kirk checked in the direction of the conductors, and they were not being followed. "We need to regroup—"

"There, Captain!"

Spock, McCoy, and the security officer were stepping inside a train coach with the rest of the crowd.

"Spock?" Kirk questioned to himself. He just didn't look right walking onto a train. Kirk and Helms quickly maneuvered through the line to reach them. One child complained about them "cutting."

"McCoy wanted to ride the train, Captain," Spock informed.

"Don't you mean talking train, Spock?" McCoy countered. Spock looked at him pointedly. They all entered the coach and found a place where they could sit in the same area.

What are Spock and McCoy arguing about now? Kirk pondered. "Never mind that," Kirk interjected. "Everyone keep your communicators receptive. The Enterprise is trying to restore communication and transport function."

"Logically, we should not have landed before obtaining further analysis of the energy field. It had unforeseen effects," Spock noted.

"And logically," McCoy fussed, "trains don't talk!"

"The premise of this planet is illogical, therefore an animate train is not impossible, Doctor. Very similar to most of your comments toward me."

"Why you green-blooded—"

"Spock! Bones!" Jim couldn't think of how to restore contact with the Enterprise with those two arguing all the time. "Spock, explain the train."

"It is hard to explain, Captain. This locomotive that we are in has an animate face and speaks like Doctor McCoy."

McCoy was fuming, but Kirk firmly held the doctor's shoulder. "Why McCoy, Spock?" It was difficult to speak sternly when the topic of conversation was a talking train. Spock didn't lie or joke, so he had to be telling the truth.

"It was dismissive of all logic, Captain."

Kirk let out a light cough to disguise his laughter. "Well," he recovered, "What else?"

"When I scanned it, it had a similar reading to the strange energy around the planet. Further, I located a focused point of energy on the island that we will be taken to by this railway."

Kirk tensed his eyebrows brought his hand to his face to think. Energy in the talking train and a point of energy on the planet... The two could be related, but how was it affecting communication with the Enterprise? The energy wasn't supposed to be affecting anything. Spock was an excellent science officer, and Kirk trusted his skill to determine every effect of the energy field. But his data had not accounted for this. Behind Spock's emotionless exterior, he must be deeply unsettled by the unexpected outcomes. McCoy also trusted in Spock's logic, and fear of the unknown was likely the cause of his current quarrel with Spock.

"I don't know about these illogical talking trains, Jim," McCoy said quietly, "but if it helps us get back to the ship, I'll play along."

"Thank you, Doctor," Spock said, seemingly ignorant that the comment was not for him. But since he was Spock, he probably knew this perfectly well. In response, McCoy tightened his face and turned to look out the window.

The captain smirked at the comment, but regained his composure. "We'll investigate the train later, Spock, but I would like to know more about this planet's energy source."

Together, they examined Kirk's map of Sodor and found the corresponding location of the energy source. It was in a southern peninsula of the island, south of the Cabalnoo village. The captain noted that it was west of Kirk Ronan. The peninsula looked generally uninhabited, so they would not have to worry about using their technology.

The train soon began to move along the line. No one seemed to mind the bumping and grinding except for the Enterprise crew. They swayed back and forth and their shoulders bumped. The coach seat was not nearly as comfortable as the Captain's Chair, Kirk noted. Scotty would quit his job if the ship ran like this. The crew minded their own business, but they noticed that children would occasionally turn around to stare at them, especially stoic Spock. Kirk counted the minutes until they reached the next station.

Suddenly, and at the smoothest part of the ride, all five of their communicators began to hum and whistle with steadily increasing volume. Every passenger turned and stared in their direction. Kirk quickly began speaking into his communicator to try to contact the ship. No voice replied, but the noise level still increased.

"Analysis, Mr. Spock!" Kirk yelled over the now shrieking communicator.

"Interference directly from the Enterprise," Spock replied while holding his ears.

Children were beginning to cry and their parents were grumbling and standing from their seats.

"Shut them down!" Kirk ordered, the sound still rising in pitch and shrillness.

As they turned off their communicators, the train began squealing to a stop. They were not at a station. More angry passengers stood up and began to walk toward the Enterprise crew, thinking they stopped the train. A conductor quickly ran inside the coach.

"Sorry about the emergency stop, folks! Our radios have gone haywire and our train can't handle it—"

"It's those people!" an angry male passenger yelled, pointing at Kirk. Kirk glared at him and sat down in his seat. His ears were still ringing from the loud communicators.

"No, it's— Wait!" The conductor stopped, walking towards the crew, looking at the captain. "You're Kirk! You fixed the radio the last time!"

The captain could feel McCoy's and all the passengers' eyes burning into him. Maybe he could fix it again, but he wanted Spock's help. He opened his mouth to ask him, but a roar erupted across the coach, sending everyone cowering to the floor with their ears covered. Even the train itself shuddered at the sound. It was coming from the intercom speakers, and a few of them exploded from the strain. Gradually it transformed from a technological roar and sounded like an anguished wail. It was a sickening sound and filled everyone with primordial fear.

"It is from the Enterprise, Captain!" Spock yelled.

Didn't they realize what they were doing? Kirk towered to his full height against the sound. Pained and furious, he yelled into the air, "Stop using this intercom, Lieutenant!"

At the sound of his voice, all sound on the coach was silenced, including the moaning passengers. The conductor shakily gave the intercom microphone to Captain Kirk.

"Lieutenant!" he yelled, his voice being broadcast across the train. Static. Kirk gritted his teeth. "Respond!"

Again, not a sound. But it responded to his voice earlier. It was almost like something was keeping him from being able to communicate. The talking trains?

"I don't know what you are," Kirk said quickly, "But you will," he stressed, "allow my ship to speak to me." It was a far fetched idea that something could actually be controlling the ship, but something had to be done.

A voice immediately began to appear through the static. "—not causing this Captain, it's—"

"CAPTAIN!" a woman suddenly screamed through every speaker on the train, sending everyone cowering. "COME BACK TO ME!" Every speaker popped and the coach was quiet.

Kirk grimaced and tossed the speaker back to the conductor. "We need to get off this train now," he ordered his crew.

"That was not Lieutenant Uhura, Captain," Spock added, standing by the door.

"I know, Spock. I don't know who it was, but we need to get back on that ship, and we're going to find out how." With that remark, he jumped out of the coach, followed by the rest of the crew.

The passengers were largely immobile with confusion. Spock began to approach the door when a human child got his attention.

"Mister!" she whispered.

Spock looked closely at the emotionally distraught child. She had tears in her eyes.

"Who was that lady?"

Spock thought for a moment since there were increasing amounts of eyes on him. "A talking train, naturally," he answered. "She wishes that her driver would return." With that, Spock hopped from the coach after the crew.

He found them farther up the track gazing up, mouths open, at the large blue tender locomotive, who was giving them a sound verbal lashing.

"You wanted to throw my express off the rails? Pah! This will show you!" he said pompously.

Spock walked up behind Dr. McCoy. "Doctor McCoy, it is highly illogical for you especially to be quiet during an argument." McCoy visibly tensed up. "Surely you have a witty remark," Spock continued as they all turned around, "that you would, metaphorically speaking, put down its smoke-stack."

Kirk rested a hand on Spock's shoulder as he passed by, and McCoy could only glare—never admitting that Spock was right about the animate trains.

The crew quietly walked beside the track in the direction of the focused point of energy. They needed no words to express their concerns about returning to the Enterprise from this mysterious place.


	5. Chapter 4

"Has anyone heard from Scotty!?" Lieutenant Uhura called across the bridge. "I can't communicate across the ship or with the captain!"

The bridge was buzzing with activity, and the whole ship lurched and vibrated from failing engine control. Reports of ship-wide problems were delivered in person because the last functional line of communication had just failed. Doors were stuck and every elevator was now jammed. When someone pried one door open, another would close. The strange thing about it was that the ship's vital functions, like the engine output and life support, were unchanged. No damage had occurred to the ship that would cause all this, and it began as soon as the landing party left the ship. The ship was literally shaking off the crew's ability to control it. Uhura was relieved that the landing party had arrived safely on the planet and had not been killed.

With a commotion-halting screech, the bridge elevator doors opened, revealing the chief engineer armed with a pry bar. "Permission ta come on the bridge," he said sarcastically. He and the other riders quickly ran out before the doors closed behind them like a guillotine.

"Scotty!" Uhura called.

"I've been tryin' to communicate, but th' ship is uncontrollable!" he huffed. He began running to various control panels, looking for any signs of hope. "Can anyone get ahold o' the captain?"

"Negative," Sulu called, his knuckles white on the ship's stabilizer, "And we won't be able to maintain orbit for much longer! Do we have transporters?"

"I' been trapped on that elevator, but I know transporter function is still down. It's like everything on the ship rebelled against us!" Scotty called. "Everything you try just gets shut down!"

"We need to leave orbit or we could crash into the planet!" Sulu exclaimed over a new batch of talking crewmen. They had just lost control of the main viewing screen.

"Do it, Sulu!" Scotty ordered. "We'll come back when we get control!"

Sulu plugged in directions and the ship began to stop its wobble and move from the planet. Luckily they could move accurately without seeing outside. Everyone sighed at the still path, but with a sudden lurch, the ship changed its course back to the unstable orbit. Sulu, frustrated, punched more buttons, but the ship didn't move from orbit again. Sulu again grasped the stabilizer, but it had less effect than it did before.

"The engines are perfectly functional!" Scotty yelled. The ship should not have been acting this way. He ran to Sulu's panel, and they tried to type every override code they could think of.

"Scotty, look!" Sulu pointed at one of his screens.

Sulu's coordinate sphere had gone blank, and a single line of text crawled across the screen before it turned black again.

Sulu looked up at Scotty, who was flushed with confusion and anger. "Someone is controlling the ship, and it isn't us."

The text rolled across the screen again:

 _I will not leave without the captain!_

"Then why can't ya at least fly us in a steady path!?" Scotty yelled at the screen.

"Captain's Log: Supplementary. We are stranded on the Island of Sodor. The energy of this planet appears to have enough power cause some large machines to become animated, and it could also be affecting the Enterprise. We have not been able to contact the ship since the locomotive radio incident, so we are following a lead to the potential source of the energy. We must find a way to communicate with the Enterprise as soon as possible."

"How far from the source are we, Mr. Spock?" Kirk called. The direction of the energy source had led them away from the train tracks, and the crew had been walking through a treeless field of farmland for half an hour. They should meet up with more tracks eventually, according to his map.

"Ten point three four miles, Captain," he responded. "Perhaps finding a means of ground transportation would be a more efficient use of our time."

Kirk sighed. When they did reach the tracks, it was unlikely that any train would give them a ride, especially if all the trains were like Gordon—the angry engine's name, according to Spock. The crew's reputation had to have spread across the small island by now, but it was urgent that the crew return to the Enterprise, and that meant finding some kind of transportation. "Yes, let's try, Spock," he agreed.

A railway led right to the point of energy, and riding looked more appealing than walking. There were no stars near the planet, so there shouldn't have been a sun in the sky. But there was, and its direct afternoon heat was making their walk almost unbearable. Whatever caused this illusion was very powerful because everything seemed real. All the tricks that were now so obvious to Kirk were hidden in plain sight when the crew first arrived on the planet. They really needed to get out of here.

"I see some steam coming up over that way." McCoy pointed to the top the tree line where thin wisps of vapor stood apart from the blue sky.

Spock scanned the area and said, "It is a steam engine."

The "I could have told you that!" was so evident on McCoy's face that he didn't need to say it out loud.

"We'll go ask for a ride," Kirk said with a tired grin.

"As long as it isn't that big blue engine," McCoy mumbled.

The five of them walked across the field and passed through a narrow line of trees. When they emerged, they found a small blue engine with no coaches calmly steaming and chatting with its driver. The driver was shoveling a lot of coal into the engine's firebox as it remained stationary on the rails.

"Driver, how long until I can go?" the engine called out with a child-like tone. It did not sound like the gruff blue engine at all.

The driver chuckled. "Your fire is almost hot enough, Thomas! Since it's your fireman's day off, I have to do both jobs, remember?"

The crew was still partially concealed in the shade of the trees, but Crewman Helms was standing out a little ways to get a better look at the locomotive. The sight of the animate locomotives was still an interesting sight to the crew, and no one noticed that she was blowing their cover until the train called out to her.

"Hello, there!" called the locomotive with a smile.

"Uh, captain?" Helms stammered, looking at the captain for guidance.

Kirk stood. He smoothed his suit and cast a glance at Spock for guidance. He wished they could have hidden behind the train so it wouldn't have seen them.

"Hello," Kirk called with a slight wave. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to address a train, so he stuck with a standard greeting.

The train shifted its eyebrows suggestively. "Were you playing hide and seek over there?" it joked.

Was it actually joking with them? The crew stood with blank facial expressions for a moment. Captain Kirk had conversed with aliens, and he had argued with the most ambitious machines and won. The train was too complex to be like a machine or a robot; its face transitioned seamlessly between facial expressions with no evidence of moving parts. It still had the body of a normal train, so it could not be biological either. It was a very intriguing product of this dream world, and the crew could not assume that it would behave "normally."

"Do you and your friends need a ride?" the train continued in a friendly voice.

It never stopped smiling at them, and the captain wasn't sure how he felt about that. Should he trust himself and his crew to this train, which could be the very thing keeping him and his crew from returning to the ship? Anything was possible.

"Yes, we do," Kirk replied confidently.

To boldly go, as they say.

"Driver!" the train called, causing the driver to stand upright from tending the fire. "Can we give these people a ride?"

The driver stepped out from the train and sized up the five, who had fully emerged from the tree line. "Er, sure! You look like reasonable folks, but you all might need to help shovel coal!"

Kirk let the other crewmen climb into the train first while he held Spock back for a moment.

Kirk whispered, "Spock, could we drive this thing if we had to..." He didn't finish his sentence because Spock knew what he meant. The driver may not always think of them as "reasonable folks."

"Yes. It is 99.64% more simple than piloting the Enterprise," he replied in a quiet tone.

Kirk didn't want to get rid of this driver, he thought as he shook the man's hand. Especially since the train seemed to have an attachment to him. He didn't want to test the unpredictability of this world.

"I'm Driver Stephens. It's nice to finally meet you, Kirk," the driver greeted. "I've heard about the radio problems on our line."

Kirk smiled amiably though he grimaced inside. This was another reason he didn't want to get rid of the driver; Kirk already had a reputation on Sodor. McCoy could drug the driver to knock him out for a couple of hours, but once he awoke, they would need to be off the island. "Yes. Well. Are you having any radio problems here?"

"Trying not to, sir. We only keep it on for short amounts of time so we don't get interference," he replied.

Kirk nodded and stood behind the driver as he pulled some levers. Steam began to puff through the pistons, and the wheels began to turn. "What is your engine's name, Driver?"

"This is Thomas, sir, a very useful engine. Children can't get enough of him and Percy!" He was beaming with pride. "And actually, he isn't my engine; I'm his driver!" he added with a chuckle.

What he said appeared to be a joke, and everyone laughed gently(except for Spock), but it gave fuel to the thought that trains were the ones in charge around here. At least Thomas appeared to have a more agreeable personality than Gordon.

After they had been puffing along the railroad for a few minutes, the driver handed back a shovel for coal. McCoy took it and rolled up his sleeves, claiming he had been getting bored.

Meanwhile, Kirk took out the map of Sodor and stood next to the driver. "I know you have work to do, Mr. Stephens, but would you mind taking us to this branch line?" He pointed to the place on the map that had the focused energy signature.

The driver took the map in his sooty hand and looked at the location quizzically.

"My radio scientists and I believe that this place is the source of the radio interference," Kirk added when he looked like he was going to decline.

"Where does he want to go, Driver?" Thomas asked from the front. It was surprisingly easy to hear his voice in the cabin.

"He wants to go see the Conductor's Railway," he answered the train, who subsequently whistled twice. Perhaps it was excitement. Looking back at Kirk, he sighed. "The Fat Controller doesn't like trains using that branch line after the incident with the diesel engines, but since there might be a problem, Thomas and I will take you down there." He checked the train's gauges and added, more to himself, "Maybe the diesels could have come back."

McCoy stopped shoveling for a moment and addressed the driver. "I'm a little new to rail lines, Mr. Stephens. Would you mind telling me a bit more about these diesel engines?"

Kirk nodded approvingly at McCoy for his quick wit.

"The diesels?" The driver seemed to struggle. "Well, we don't really like to talk about it—"

The train took over for him, "It was despicable! At least that's what Henry says," he added. "The Conductor used to help the Island of Sodor be full of magic from the Magic Railway. The magic helped send away those bad diesel engines, but then the Conductor disappeared! No engine knows what happened to him!"

Crewman Helms looked bemused during the whole explanation. A gasoline engine was a blessing to many societies, but not to this one, apparently.

"Yes, Thomas," the driver interjected, looking a bit nervous, "But that's also a fair bit of engine lore mixed in too. No one has seen the diesels since then, so perhaps the Conductor had no need to return. Sodor is very safe now." The driver looked back at the crew. "The point is, I'll take you to the place, but there isn't some magic railroad or evil diesel engines. Nothing is there except some old buffers and a plaque for the Conductor."

Spock met the captain's eyes, and Kirk knew they were thinking the same thing. The driver had contradicted himself when he spoke of the diesel engines, first crediting them and then discounting them entirely. And what was so bad about a diesel engine anyway? Whatever made this railway run so uniquely, it was kept a mystery from them. The crew might have to crack that mystery before they would be able to get back to the Enterprise. The train knew something though. Perhaps they could use it to their advantage. If the train was in charge, could he be tricked into forsaking his driver?

On another note, there was a Fat Controller, but now there was a Conductor. Was the Conductor above the Controller? What was the difference?

Thomas continued to chug along the line, whistling greetings to any onlookers and to other engines. Even though it was probably fake, the land was lush and green, and the cool breeze dissipated the heat from the sun on the passengers' skin.

The driver radioed to switch the track to allow the entourage onto the mysterious branch line. Soon after riding the rarely-used railway, they hissed to a stop next to some inconspicuous wooden buffers. A peaceful wishing well was nestled among the green hills. They were completely alone and deaf to the rest of the island.

"Well, here we are," the driver announced. He did not seem enthusiastic about being here, in contrast to Thomas.

"I feel fantastic, Driver!" exclaimed the train with a whistle. "All the memories here are fresh on my boiler!"

The crew hopped down from Thomas to investigate the area. Kirk stood beside Spock as he used his scanner.

"The area of interest is exactly the location of the buffers," he concluded.

McCoy was already investigating them, even touching his hand to them. "It doesn't feel any different than normal wood!" he called.

Interested, Kirk began to walk over to McCoy, but he heard a funny sound coming from the train. Thomas was watching them and smiling.

"Did you just," Kirk stepped towards the train, "laugh?"

Thomas smiled bigger. "Well everyone knows that only the conductor or an engine can go through the magic buffers. I've even been through them before!" he said.

"Go through them," Kirk said to himself, studying the train. He was mesmerized by its ability to say so much with its face and eyes. It couldn't be real, but it had to be. He broke away, "Spock!"

"Yes, Captain."

"Thomas says only an _engine_ can," he paused, looking at the train again, "go through the buffers." Hopefully Spock understood his meaning since they had discussed this earlier.

Hopefully the crew could trust the train.

"Understood, Captain," he replied, then he called to McCoy. "Doctor! We need to ride the train again."

McCoy soon understood what they had to do. While Kirk stood in front of the engine where it could see him alone, the enterprise crew lured the driver from his station and silently anesthetized him. The security officer dragged him to a safe place behind some bushes, and Spock made sure that the cabin radio was switched off. Thomas felt the eery silence and looked at Kirk with a cross expression—he wasn't smiling anymore.

"What have you done with my driver?" he asked steadily.

"We gave him some medicine that would make him go to sleep for a few hours, and he is safely resting behind some bushes," Kirk answered honestly.

The train rolled its eyes away from him and steamed in frustration.

"We didn't hurt him, Thomas," Kirk bargained. "We need you, alone, to take us through these buffers since you've been here before. Your driver didn't seem up to the task, and we have some work to do."

Thomas looked frustrated, but also a little worried. "But the conductor isn't here anymore! What if the diesels are waiting inside for us?"

The captain frowned. What if the train was able to resist his crew from driving it. Or worse, what if it could drive itself and hurt them. "Thomas, I need you to be brave and to do this for the railway. If the diesels are back, do you want them to stay hidden or do you want to get rid of them for good?" he suggested.

Thomas seemed to consider this choice. "It would keep the railway safe," he trailed off.

"Yes," Kirk continued. It was time for a rallying speech. "My name is _Captain_ James Kirk. I am the Controller _and_ Conductor where I'm from. My crew and I will make sure that you, your driver, and the railway are safe."

Thomas almost looked convinced. "Alright, Captain," he gently complied. "I'll try my best." He furrowed his eyebrows. "But you aren't one of those people that tries to steal our railroad magic, are you?"

"No, of course not!" Kirk replied. He didn't have a clue what that meant anyway. "Thank you for agreeing to help us." As he began to walk to the train cabin, he realized that the doctor had been standing by and watching him for several minutes.

McCoy had his arms crossed and wore a smirk that he usually reserved for Spock. He shook his head as Kirk hopped up to the cabin. "Captain James T. Kirk: Train whisperer!"

With a flash of his teeth, the Captain of the Railway adjusted his hat and announced, "All aboard."


	6. Chapter 5

Everyone got inside the train, and Spock and the security officer quickly figured out how to drive the locomotive. With a few alterations to the track, the crew was ready to approach the buffers. Thomas whistled expectantly.

"Are you ready, Thomas?" Kirk asked.

"Yes, sir!" he replied. He might not have completely trusted the captain, but he was looking forward to seeing the Magic Railroad again. Unless there were diesels.

Captain Kirk was ready, but he wasn't sure what he was ready for. If the buffers were some kind of portal, it would be completely different on the other side.

"We'll enter nice and slowly," Kirk said, putting his hand on a wall of the cabin, as if he were securing the train's good will. "Nice and slowly," he repeated for Spock.

He nodded and eased the brakes off. They slowly puffed forward. Thomas was wide-eyed with anticipation.

Everyone in the cabin was stiff and silent and held onto something for support. Kirk and McCoy looked out the two holes in the cabin to see ahead of them. Spock tightly held the brake lever. If the buffers were solid after all, the train would derail and crash into the hills. It was very surreal. If the crew died on the planet, would they actually be dead?

"Here we go!" Thomas quivered, closing his eyes as his front tapped where the buffers should have been.

The crew expected to feel a lurch and crash, but there was nothing except for a flurry of tiny golden lights. Even though they had seen wonderful things across the galaxy, the sight of the railway ahead of them left the crew in awe.

"We made it!" Thomas called in triumph, and everyone cheered. The sound came out as narrow since their eyes were so wide.

"Stop the train," Kirk told Spock, who promptly applied the brakes.

Thomas babbled on about how the railway hadn't changed a bit, but the captain gingerly stepped out of the cabin and took in the view, not quite trusting the strange ground. "What is this place?" he whispered.

It was a dim railway tunnel netted with ivy on the sides and ceiling. It glowed a yellowish green color through the foliage. The light softly fluctuated like a candle. The single rail itself looked gold, and Kirk noticed that flecks of golden light sprinkled out from Thomas's wheels at the slightest movement. The air was thick, like it would absorb every sound, and the crew walked over the polished stones by the railway without the smallest echo. The tunnel was tall and wide and could hold much larger engines than Thomas, but it was lonely. It wasn't hostile to the new sounds of life coming from its first visitors in years.

McCoy called out, "Jim, according to my readings, the Enterprise doesn't exist! There's no signal at all!"

Startled, Kirk took out his communicator. There wasn't even static. He thought they would be getting past the interference by coming here, but now they were completely lost. As interesting as this place was, they needed to leave. He walked in front of the train. "Thomas, is there a way to get out of this tunnel?"

"Of course! We can go the way we came, but there's also another side."

"What is on the other side?"

A large smile broke across the train's face, but he quickly tempered it. "Oh, it's a very strange place! It isn't nearly as magical as Sodor!" Thomas looked lost in fond memories, so Kirk found his science officer, who was kneeling on the ground examining something.

"What is the risk of following this tunnel to the other end, Spock?"

Spock stood up, holding a small golden object he picked up from the ground. He furrowed his eyebrows. "Since this tunnel was a kind of portal, it is likely that the other side is an exit from this realm, as Thomas said. However, I cannot calculate if we will be able to communicate with the Enterprise or what the next realm will be."

"It's a risk, but if there is less of this magic, we probably stand a better chance."

McCoy ambled over to the captain, clutching his tricorder. "I don't like this tunnel, Jim," he muttered. "There are lifeforms down that way, besides the plants on the wall."

"I don't like it either, Bones," Kirk replied, "But if we have any hope of returning to the ship, this is probably it."

As Kirk and McCoy were talking, Spock walked to the front of the locomotive.

The train greeted him. "I didn't catch your name, sir! I'm Thomas," he offered.

"My name is Spock." He held up the golden object he found on the ground. "Do you know what this is?"

Thomas gasped, and his face looked profound. "That's the Conductor's magic whistle! He must have dropped it. He needs it to be able to ride this railway!"

Spock examined it closely, locating the small mouthpiece and removing some dirt. "One can use this whistle to travel? How?"

Thomas was greatly concerned that the Conductor had stopped visiting because he had lost his whistle, but Thomas tried to help the very serious man. He imagined the Conductor using the whistle for a second. "I don't know how he did it, but I know the Conductor could appear out of nowhere. Maybe he thought of where he wanted to go and blew on it!"

"Fascinating," Spock mumbled. Spock did not believe in magic as the train did, but the whistle seemed to be the center of the energy in this tunnel; his scanner led him right to it. It was a stronger signal than the wooden buffers had been. He heard the captain assembling the crew, so he carefully placed the whistle in his pocket for later analysis.

"We're going to go see what's at the end of this tunnel," the captain rallied. "McCoy picked up some life forms aside from plants, so have your phasers ready and set to stun."

The crew got inside the train cabin and prepared Thomas for movement. The tunnel was slightly curved and about two miles long from what the sensors could tell. Thomas puffed along at a comfortable speed so the crew had plenty of time to look around.

Thomas liked how smooth and quiet the rails were under his wheels, almost satiny. The magic dust fluttered against his sides, and he did not want the tunnel ride to go by very quickly. He thought and whispered to himself about all the kind people, and the Conductor, and Lady, the golden engine. This had been her railway, but she had disappeared too. The diesel engines were so rotten that they probably took her and the Conductor!

Farther down the tunnel, the candle-like glow faded somewhat, causing the delicate ivy to look like thorny vines or gnarled hands. Thomas had to turn on his light, and he began muttering things to himself about the diesels.

The things he said set the crew on edge though they didn't know why. Surely they didn't believe that a diesel engine as evil as what Thomas described would join them at any moment! All the same, the tracks ahead of them seemed to shift in and out of focus, and they felt that Thomas's rail noise wasn't the only clatter on the tracks.

On a segment of straight track, they began to see a suspicious glow that grew from around the next gentle curve.

"Someone is on my track! Take me back!" Thomas yelled.

The security officer hurriedly began to apply the brakes.

"It has a combustion engine signature, Captain," Spock announced.

Kirk involuntarily shuddered. That couldn't be McCoy's life-form, could it?

"Oh, it's a _diesel_!" Thomas yelled. He applied his brakes as hard as he could, and he finally stopped moving.

There was still the sound of a locomotive moving on the track, and it was very big.

A deep mechanical laugher echoed through the muffled tunnel, seemingly in response to Thomas's call. Within the minute, a monstrous pale face appeared from the shadows, and a rusty hydraulic claw, high above the olive green frame, menacingly creaked open. A sneer was etched into the diesel's rectangular face, and its oil black eyes haughtily surveyed the diesel's next target.

The glinting engine purred up to Thomas. "Well, Thomas!" it rumbled, "It's been a long time hasn't it?"

Thomas shot a jet of blistering steam into the diesel's face, surprising the crew and making the diesel sputter and cough. "You were supposed to leave Sodor for good, Diesel Ten!" Thomas spat. "You were sent away in disgrace!"

"In case you haven't noticed, Tea Kettle, I'm not _in_ Sodor!"

As the trains began to argue, Captain Kirk left Thomas's cabin and walked beside the tracks to investigate the diesel. It had no driver in its cabin. He didn't know exactly why steam engines didn't like diesel engines, but this diesel was probably the one that gave them all a bad name. He seemed very cunning.

Diesel 10 saw Kirk approaching and snapped his squeaky toothed claw at him. "What do you think you're doing?" he growled.

Kirk was a little taken aback at the aggression. He assumed the diesel would be indifferent to humans. "Where is your driver?" Kirk asked with authority.

"Never needed one! _We diesels_ don't need people to coddle us like these inefficient steam engines!"

Thomas shot more steam at the diesel's face, drawing his attention away from the captain.

If the engine was distracted enough, Kirk would be able to climb into its cabin and possibly find a way to disable it. It didn't look like it would agree to move out of the way, and its sharp claw could be a danger to Thomas.

Kirk began to run at the engine cabin, but Diesel 10 saw what he was doing and intercepted him with his claw. The swat threw Kirk backward, and he tumbled in the dirt and stones. His hat was lost and his suit jacket was soiled, so he shed it and ran at the diesel again, who had his claw clamped on Thomas's smokestack by then.

The diesel wouldn't have tried to protect itself if it had no weakness, so Kirk was sure that there was a way to disable it in the cabin. He managed to grasp the locked (of course!) cabin door before Diesel 10 released Thomas and grabbed at Kirk again. He was able to wrap his legs around the claw arm and ride it out while the diesel tried to throw him off.

"Let go of Pinchy!" he yelled as Kirk held on for dear life. It was a brazen move, and not the most well thought out.

The whole crew had jumped out of Thomas ready to take action when the diesel first threw the captain, but they regretted leaving. Thomas released his own brakes and rammed his buffers into the diesel. ("Steam engines weak? Rubbish! I'll show you!") Kirk was almost thrown off by the solid lurch, but he regained his grip lower on the claw's arm and began to crawl down the rusty metal to where the arm connected to the diesel's roof. Diesel 10 was too preoccupied with returning Thomas's steamy blows with a few of his own to notice the captain crawling over him like a bug.

Kirk regretted removing his jacket earlier because his phaser was in it. He resorted to hanging from the grab bars on the engine's roof and kicking the window pane over the door. His dress shoes were not as effective as his uniform boots would have been, and the diesel noticed what he was trying to do. With a quick swipe, Kirk soared to the ground, and the air rushed out of him. A rusty point on the claw snagged on the shoulder of the captain's dress shirt, and tore a ribbon of fabric all the way down his side.

"Are you out of your mind, Jim!?" McCoy exclaimed, helping him up from the ground. "You can't fight a machine!"

"Is it really a machine, or just an illusion?" Kirk challenged. He brushed some dirt off his pants, not bothering with the shirt. "Fire phasers at that claw," he ordered.

The Enterprise crew began firing at Diesel 10, and his eyes widened in fear when the hydraulics of his claw busted. It was useless!

"No! Please don't make me go back there!" He tried to negotiate with the attackers while fleeing backwards, and he was eventually out of sight. Kirk couldn't help but think the engine was actually alive inside. Maybe that was why he didn't have a driver.

When the crew got back inside Thomas, he sternly puffed forward on the rails, and they continued the journey to the end of the tunnel without saying much. Thomas's smokestack was marked with red rust, but he was otherwise unharmed. He was glad Diesel 10 wasn't able to hurt anyone, but he was a little concerned about the strange beams of light that broke Diesel's claw. It must have been unfriendly magic.

"Captain, we are approaching the end of the tunnel," Spock announced.

"Slow us down," said Kirk. He looked out the side window and saw something that looked like a black wall. The diesel was not there, so he must have passed through.

"Ten meters," Spock announced.

"Hold your breath," McCoy remarked.

McCoy was correct.

As soon as they began passing through the tunnel, the air rushed from their lungs and ears. It was a horrible sensation! There were no golden sparkles, only more blackness ahead.

And it was so, so cold.

"Beam us up, Enterprise!" was the last phrase that Kirk could reserve for his communicator, but the Enterprise was not there to hear, nor did his voice make a sound.

They exited the tunnel with a great crash as Thomas ran aground and toppled over. The railway had disappeared, revealing razor-sharp rock shards, and Diesel 10's faceless remains rested in shredded ruins in the distance.

Spock alone, as he was stronger than a human, was conscious to note the true face of the planet that the Enterprise had discovered: A dark, cold, uninhabitable space rock.


	7. Chapter 6

The planet was extremely dark and so rocky that it shredded Spock's arm when he caught himself as he was ejected from the cabin. Thomas the animate locomotive was now merely a faceless steam engine run aground. The fire in the firebox had gone out almost as soon as the party exited the portal. No oxygen; no fire. The steam from his funnel turned to ice and rained down. The wreckage of the diesel engine was lost among the many other faceless diesels across the cratered surface. With a lack of atmosphere, there was no rust; Spock was unsure how long the wreckage had been here.

This was the real planet, and it was completely devoid of life. The Enterprise had somehow observed an illusion, and it could very well be trapped inside it. This created the possibility that none of it was real at all.

The human crew quickly lost consciousness once outside, including the strong-willed captain who tried to call the Enterprise one last time. The sudden cold and the partial vacuum shocked their systems, and it was doing a number on the Vulcan's body as well. Spock remained conscious longer than the humans because he was inherently hardier and practiced excellent control over his mind, but his desert-evolved body would freeze with no hope of repair faster than a human body would. Though Spock was conscious and worked to suspend his agonizing nerve impulses, he would die soon. For as long as he could stay awake, he had the duty to save his captain and crew.

Spock was almost immobilized by the cold. His legs were stiff and numb. Even if he could walk, it was logical that only an engine would be able to pass through the rock back into the tunnel. One unusual idea occurred to the Vulcan. It was a costly venture, but the chance of success was probable based on the data he had.

With the small amount of air he forced to remain in his lungs, he drew out the Conductor's whistle with his stiff frozen fingers and allowed his last breath to pass through it. Spock thought he felt something a little warm as the blackness of hypoxia and hypothermia overtook him.

—

"Spock! Wake up!" McCoy yelled, shaking Spock's shoulder, "You did it, you son of a Vulcan!"

Spock quickly regained awareness from the unwelcome physical contact and sat up. The evening sun's rays warmed him as if he had never been in deep space. Spongy soil and grass cushioned him instead of shards of rock, the planet's true surface. He noticed that his arm was not injured even though the sleeve of his suit was torn just as his skin had been. This showed that the planet's true surface was a true experience, but he wondered if the illusion masked injuries or if he was actually healed.

"Come and see, Spock!" McCoy said before he ran down the flowery meadow hill.

Spock's eyebrows perked up at the, by human standards, _ideal_ situation he found himself. Also at the way McCoy pranced, not walked nor ran, through the flowers.

Spock stood up and followed down the hill. In the valley below, the Enterprise landing crew was conscious and healthy, and they were beside Thomas, who was poised on the rails beside the railroad buffer portal. Thomas had his face once again, and he was talking and smiling. Everyone was alive and healthy back inside the illusion.

"Spock!" Captain Kirk called, holding up the sparkling Conductor's whistle.

Spock joined him.

Kirk stared at the whistle and smiled greatly at his friend, "How did you do it, Spock? How did you know?"

Spock raised his eyebrows, "Upon observation of certain data trends and previous advice from the train," Spock hesitated, "I followed a hunch, Captain."

"A hunch?" Kirk began to laugh. "I'm proud of you!" McCoy overheard the exchange and also began to laugh. Kirk was jovial, but McCoy's laughter was more condescending. Spock chose to ignore it.

"It was my duty, Captain," Spock nodded. "I am pleased that it accomplished the majority of what I intended."

"We aren't back on the Enterprise, but we are alive to make the next move," the captain emphasized. He handed Spock the whistle before he sauntered away with McCoy to laugh about something else.

Kirk had no idea what happened, but he knew that he trusted Spock to hang onto the whistle for the rest of their journey. He remembered calling the Enterprise on his communicator after the train crash, but there wasn't a sound. It was like they were lightyears away from any civilization. Next he felt a strange warmth and they all materialized here in the valley.

"Has anyone tried to communicate with the Enterprise?" Spock asked.

"All we got was that screaming sound again. There's no use," McCoy answered.

Kirk assembled the crew closer to himself using his body language. "When we left the tunnel, was the Enterprise there, in that realm?" he asked. "Spock, you were awake longer than we were."

"It could not have been," Spock answered. "It is inside the same illusion as we are now, based on the fact that we could observe this face of the planet from the Enterprise. We have extreme interference when we try to communicate, but we do get some form of signal."

"Why would there be so much interference with it, if everything is in the same realm?" Kirk tapped his chin and walked around as he thought. "There has to be a way, here, that we can get back to it!"

"If we can't use the communicators anymore," McCoy thought out loud. "Maybe there is some kind of physical signal we could give. I remember seeing the planet from the ship; there was hardly a cloud in the sky!"

Spock moved forward. "Captain, there was a hovering aircraft that we saw shortly after beaming down."

"Yes!" Kirk replied. "Thomas!" He got the train's attention. "Does the island have an airfield?"

"Yes, close to the docks. Harold the Helicopter will probably go there soon for the night." Thomas couldn't stop himself from yawning right then. He remembered his comfortable shed and his friends. "I wonder if my driver is alright," he said to himself.

Thomas was cheerful because he was himself again, but he was mostly lost in thought. He did not like leaving the end of the Magic Railroad because he could see everything around him, but he couldn't cry out. He thought there would be another green and warm realm at the end of the tunnel, but it was cold and dark, and Thomas never wanted to return. He saw all the poor diesel engines without faces, and he wondered if they could feel the same things he could. When Kirk and his crew were talking with each other, Thomas felt very sorry for the diesels. Even though they had been unkind to Thomas and the other steam engines, he felt they did not deserve to wait in such a horrible place.

Kirk recalled that his jacket flew out of the train cabin when they crashed into the rocks, and it had his map of Sodor and phaser. He decided to ask Thomas for directions. The train looked a little glum, and his eyes were turned up in thought. "Do you know how to get to the docks from here, Thomas?"

Thomas flipped his eyes side to side, surveying the scene. "I do, but do you think my driver is awake now? Where is he?"

The security officer went to the place where they left the driver, but he was gone. He must have woken up and gone for help. Kirk hoped they hadn't gone inside the tunnel to look for Thomas. He actually felt remorse for the little blue engine.

Thomas felt sad about his lost driver and about his fight with Diesel 10. His fire would not light, and the crew began to get frustrated. If they couldn't get Thomas to move, they would be stranded here until workers came.

"If Thomas's radio still works, I could apologize and get help," Kirk suggested. "We didn't have any bad intentions after all."

Spock switched on the radio, and Kirk sighed comfortably as it hummed with static. Better the sound of controlled static than a screech.

He pressed the talk button. "Hello, this is Jim Kirk. The engine Thomas has been found. Requesting backup. Acknowledge."

He spoke so that it would not be unusual for the railway workers to hear, but the line was dead silent.

"You do have to release the button when you are finished speaking, Captain," Spock pointed out.

Spock was a dutiful first officer.

After raising his eyebrow at the Vulcan, Kirk released his finger. They listened as the low static returned. The rest of the Enterprise crew stopped trying to light Thomas's fire and listened expectantly.

Kirk pressed the button to try again. "This is Jim Kirk. Tank engine number one has been found. Requesting backup. Acknowledge."

Kirk released the button this time, and there was more low static.

"Captain?" a clear female voice asked through the speaker.

The crew was suddenly at attention. Kirk pressed the button delicately, as if he would lose the signal otherwise. "Uhura?"

"Yes, Captain!" she replied excitedly. "I guess we have communication back!"

The landing crew around Kirk cheered. "I guess we do!" Kirk replied. "Our communicators make the most terrible sounds when we turn them on, so lock onto this signal to beam us up, if you can."

"Let me put the word out, Captain. We don't exactly have ship-wide communication yet."

Kirk's eyes widened. The whole ship couldn't communicate with itself? "We'll wait," he replied.

After several hours of radio silence, the landing party was in the dark concerning the Enterprise. Even though the problem was even worse than they thought, it was such a relief to be able to communicate clearly with no loud noises or yelling. It boosted the landing party's morale.

On a whim, Kirk jumped out of the cabin and went to speak to the engine. "Thomas, you saved the day!"

Thomas hummed. "Did I, Captain?" he asked. If anything, he had gone on a strange adventure with little purpose and felt like he aged 50 years in the process. At least he would be able to tell the other engines his tale. The image of the faceless Diesel 10 in the cold chilled his boiler.

"With your radio connection, we can get the help we need and get your driver back to you," Kirk said, trying to perk up the engine. The happiness in his own voice surprised him. He was ready to go back to his ship.

"That will be good," Thomas said, imagining himself puffing along the rails again, carrying a toasty fire within. It was where a steam engine belonged. He winced to himself. If diesel engines carried a fire inside them, it was where a diesel engine belonged too. He would have to ask Sir Topham Hatt about that.

"Scotty is on the radio, Captain!" Helms called from the cabin.

Kirk excused himself and picked up the radio. "What did you do to my ship?" Kirk asked, mildly joking. On the other hand, how could things have gotten so bad under Scotty's watch?

"It's not what I did! It's what the ship did!" Scotty panted, as if he had just run laps in the gym. "Everything was out of our control for no reason and—" he began nervously whispering, "—we even have right to believe ship's a sentient bein'!"

This piqued the interest of Kirk and the others. On another day, they would have taken what he said as a metaphor, but they had seen all kinds of sentient mechanical beings today. It could explain a lot if the Enterprise had become animate.

Something was off about Scott, and it had Kirk worried. He was the best engineer Kirk knew of, saving the ship from internal and external destruction countless times. This was a man who would rather use his free time to catch up on technical journals, a man who started a bar fight with Klingons because they insulted the _ship_ , of all things. The tone of his voice now was _afraid_. There could be very real danger aboard.

Kirk focused in and quietly asked, "What happened, Scotty?"

"Oh, you're going to think I'm crazy, sir, but it wrote a message to us! It said it wasn't going to leave orbit without ye! Then when we couldn' find ya for a few hours, we had to fight just to stay upright!"

Kirk shared glances with his crewmates. It reminded him of when Thomas was upset that the landing party was knocking out his driver. The Enterprise felt loyal to her captain too. "Well, I'm touched that the ship stopped you from trying to leave without us—" Kirk continued speaking over Scotty's protests that it wasn't really what he meant. "—But can we be beamed aboard now or not?"

Scotty sounded insecure. "Well, technically ye can. The machine is in workin' order," he began tentatively, "but I don't trust the ship! See, we tried transportin' things to and from the planet, but they came back inside out!"

"I knew we shouldn't have used the transporter!" McCoy grumbled from the back of the cabin.

Kirk ignored his comment. "How is there nothing wrong with the machine when it does things like that?" he replied.

"That's what I don' know!" Scotty emphasized. "It's playing games with us, trickin' us! I wouldn't bet anything on that transporter bringing you back in one piece!"

"Well can you send anyone down in a ship?" Kirk asked, beginning to feel slightly annoyed.

"We already tried, Captain." Scotty answered gravely. "It was unmanned, thank God. A wise call to send it out as just a decoy."

"What happened to it, Scotty?" Kirk urged, his knuckles white.

The engineer sighed. "The ship cut it in pieces with the phasers."

Kirk nearly dropped the microphone. With the phasers? If they couldn't control the weapons... Scotty really was afraid. Kirk was... concerned. Thomas had no way of preventing the crew from removing his driver, but the Enterprise had strong defenses and deadly weapons at its disposal. The entire crew and the entire planet was in danger if the ship could not be controlled.

Kirk realized that McCoy's hand was resting on his shoulder. He glanced up to see what he wanted, but he saw from McCoy's face that he knew how hard Jim was taking it.

"Oh," Kirk replied into the mic. It was all he could say. He was glad that it hadn't been manned—it was a wise call—but why would the ship cut it up?

"I'm surprised the ship hasn't already cut off this transmission," Scotty sighed. "We need you back on board so we can sort this whole thing out, but we can't do it safely right now."

Kirk slowly brought the microphone to his mouth. "Do what you can, Scotty."

"I'm trying, sir."

Spock gestured for the microphone and Kirk absently handed it to him. "If the ship truly wanted its captain back on board," Spock began, "it would cooperate with the transport operators so the landing party could return safely." He handed the microphone back to the captain, finished. He spoke as if he were addressing someone other than Scotty.

"I hear ya, Mr. Spock," Scotty replied. "I hope the ship will work in time." He paused. " _Hey!_ There's som—"

The transmission abruptly turned to static, and Kirk hung up the microphone and left the cabin, alone.

The sun was tucking into the horizon, painting tangerine bands over the meadow. It would have been a beautiful sight to anyone, but not to the agitated captain of the Enterprise. Crew members could have died on his ship from its own lack of control, and he wasn't there to lead them. His own landing party almost died as well—their fate resting on a tiny whistle that Spock accidentally found. Kirk's choice put them in peril. They were stranded on an island with a steam engine that wouldn't steam, and it was going to be nighttime soon.

"Is your ship a diesel engine, sir?" Thomas hesitantly asked, breaking through the captain's mind. He almost forgot Thomas was there, but realized they were facing the sunset together.

Kirk had to chuckle a little bit at that question. "No, it's powered by something stronger than a diesel's fuel," he replied. His ship sort of fit the description of a rogue diesel. With a shudder, he recalled the diesel's lack of a driver.

"It sounds like your ship needs you. And misses you," Thomas said melancholically. "I miss my driver. And my shed. And my friends," he trailed off. "Do you think they'll wonder where I am?"

Now he felt terrible for the small engine. Thomas had given a lot of his time to help Kirk and his crew, and they had repaid him by knocking out his driver, forcing him to fight with his worst enemy, nearly killing him, and stranding him at night.

The Enterprise had also given a lot of time to Kirk and his crew, assuming it was animate like Thomas. It had taken many hits for them, protected them, enabled them. Kirk had always respected the ship, but he wondered if the ship harbored bad feelings towards himself and the crew. What would cause it to behave erratically, if it was alive now?

"Yes, Thomas," Kirk answered gently. "They'll wonder, and I bet they're looking for you right now. Probably the Fat Conductor himself!"

Thomas smiled to himself because Kirk said Conductor, not Controller. "I hope so! Sir Topham Hatt cares a lot about us engines!" With a far off look, he added, "He even cared about the diesels."

Captain Kirk swallowed uncomfortably when he remembered what the screaming voice in the coach, likely the Enterprise herself, said to him. He needed to prepare himself to address that tormented, longing voice.

"Well, thank you, Thomas," Kirk said, "for helping my crew and I today." He pursed his lips, thinking of the next words he would say, and said, "You were a very useful engine."

Thomas spun his eyes round and round in joy, as if those were magic words to him. "Oh thank you!" he exclaimed.

Kirk looked back toward the cabin. His crew probably needed his support too. Perhaps Spock had come to the same conclusion about the ship that he had. He said to Thomas, "I'm going to talk to my crew now."

As Kirk walked out of the train's eyesight, he felt something lurch inside. He was being beamed up, even though it was extremely dangerous. Looking out, he saw his crew equally shimmering. Kirk's heart began to pound into action, as he did not know what would happen once he materialized aboard.

Meanwhile Thomas noticed that it grew very silent in the cabin. "Captain?" he expectantly called after a few moments.

There was no response. But he couldn't really be left all alone in the middle of nowhere without a railway in sight, could he? People shouldn't be able to sneak away from him that easily.

"Captain!" he called again, worry evident in his voice. "Spock?"

An owl hooted as the sky turned from red to blue, and Thomas's cold boiler began to tremble.

"Oh bother."


End file.
